Photography Tutorials — Technique

Even if you’ve been around photography for quite some time, you may never have heard of blue hour photography. Sure, you likely have heard of the term “golden hours” before – the time just prior to sunset or right after sunrise – but what is this so-called blue hour?

Joey Shanks once again delivers some fascinating insights to how you can create amazing movie lighting effects with next to no lighting gear. Just about every effect he creates is achieved with nothing more than cheap pen lights coupled with long exposures (otherwise known as light painting). Add to that a good DSLR and a decent animation editing program, and the next thing you know, you’re recreating effects that wowed you as a kid.

Chances are, if you’ve been in the photography world for a while, you’ve come across the term ETTR, or “Expose to the Right”. Ever wondered what it means? Today, you’ll learn all about this technique, and how it can help you take better photos.

Some photographers choose to use their on-camera flash rather than buy light modification attachments. For others, this may sound a bit limiting or maybe even difficult because your camera’s flash is something quite simple, compared to the highly advanced flash attachments, at least.

Gregory Heisler is well known for his work as a presidential photographer, more notably being taking a controversial portrait of George Bush which caused Heisler’s privileges as a White House photographer to be revoked.

For this session, Hoey used a Westcott 5-in-1 40″ collapsible reflector. These 5-in-1 models are handy because of their versatility and ability to fold up to a compact size. They are also light enough that your subject can hold them during a headshot session, though Hoey doesn’t recommend it since he says that can distort the subject’s shoulders.

Traditionally, a double exposure is created by simply snapping two shots in one frame on a film camera. Sometimes, you get it right and the outcome is incredible, but lots of times you may not like the effect or even intend to do it. Now, with a few Photoshop techniques, you can create your own unique double exposure that is pretty much guaranteed to turn out exactly as you envisioned it.

First, the bad news. Like any other skill, mastering your camera may seem hard at first, but with practice, study, and experience, it is easy. Shooting with your camera on manual will become second nature to you. And you will notice a dramatic improvement in your work.

The DigitalRev team’s unorthodox and often bizarre attempts at making images could well be termed as innovative. But they are in no way boring. This time the team decided to capture images of stuff shattering and/or blowing up, and they did it using some cheap camera gear.